SOPHIA -- An armed robber got away with cash at a Raleigh County convenience store early Sunday morning, according to the local sheriff's office.

The incident happened around 3 a.m. at the Go-Mart on Robert C. Byrd Drive in Sophia, according to a news release from the Raleigh County Sheriff's Office. The clerk told police a man came into the store, brandished a weapon and demanded money. The man left with an undetermined amount of cash, police say.

The store clerk sustained a minor injury and was treated at the scene by a worker from Jan-Care Ambulance.

The sheriff's office is investigating.

Police are looking for a would-be robber after the man allegedly attempted to rob the Mountaineer Mart at Lochgelly, but the clerk refused to give him money.

About 6:45 p.m. on Sunday, an off-duty sheriff's deputy responded to a call about an attempted robbery, according to a news release from the Fayette County Sheriff's Office.

The suspect had entered the store and demanded money, but the clerk said no weapon was visible, and he refused to give the him money. The would-be robber then threatened the clerk by saying he had a gun, but the clerk still refused to comply unless the man actually produced a gun.

The man then fled the store on foot.

The suspect is described as a tall and skinny white male, about 6-feet to 6-feet, 2-inches tall. He was wearing blue jeans, a dark-colored hooded sweatshirt and his face was covered with a light-colored mask.

The Fayette County Sheriff's Office and the Oak Hill Police Department are investigating.

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Fayette County 911 Center at 304-574-3590.

A Charleston woman was killed early Sunday morning after she was hit by a truck, and a Putnam County man was charged in the incident Monday afternoon.

Carli Elizabeth Sears, 20, was pronounced dead at Ruby Memorial Hospital on Sunday, according to the Morgantown Police Department. Sears was hit by a black pickup truck around 2:30 a.m. Sunday on Stewart Street, callers told emergency dispatchers in Morgantown. The truck then drove off.

Police Chief Ed Preston said Sears was walking on the sidewalk when she was hit.

Alexander Hambrick, 19, of Winfield, turned himself in Monday, Preston said. Hambrick was initially charged with violating Erin's Law, a state law that requires motorists involved in crashes resulting in injury or death to stay at the scene. Violators of that law face a prison sentence of one to five years and a fine of not more than $5,000.

Police said early Monday they had found the truck they believed had hit Sears, hours before Hambrick's arrest was announced.

The Morgantown Fire Department and Monongalia County EMS also responded to the accident scene on Sunday morning. Emergency responders tried to treat Sears at the scene, then took her to the hospital, according to a news release.

Sears was a student at the University of Mississippi, according to an email the school sent out Sunday night. She was a junior majoring in hospitality management, and was a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, according to the school.

"The University of Mississippi community mourns the tragic loss of Carli Sears," Brandi Hephner LaBanc, vice president of student affairs, said in a statement. "We are simply heartbroken by this news. Our thoughts are with all of her family and those in the Ole Miss family that shared in her life."

Sears' funeral was set for 11 a.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church in Charleston. Visitation is from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Snodgrass Funeral Home in South Charleston, which is handling arrangements.

Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.

Deputies are looking for the owner of stolen mine equipment after finding it during a traffic stop.

Late Monday morning, deputies stopped a vehicle in the Pax/Mount Hope area for traveling too fast for road and weather conditions, according to a news release from the Fayette County Sheriff's Department.

The driver, 40-year-old David Eugene Stanley, of Beaver, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of drugs, driving on a revoked driver's license, displaying a fraudulent inspection sticker, defective equipment and driving too fast for road conditions. He also had warrants for his arrest in Boone County.

Police said they found mining equipment, including breakers, in the vehicle. Some of the wires appeared to be freshly cut.

The passenger in the vehicle was on federal supervised release for his previous involvement in the theft of mining equipment. The sheriff's department did not release the passenger's name.

Deputies are trying to find the owner of the stolen equipment. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Fayette County 911 Center at 304- 574-3590 or submit information through the department Facebook page, "Fayette County Sheriff's Department."

NEW CUMBERLAND, W.Va. (AP) - A Northern Panhandle man has been sentenced to 75 to 300 years in prison for helping his son rape a 9-year-old boy in 2014.

Media outlets report 72-year-old Karl Halstead of Newell was sentenced Tuesday in Hancock County Circuit Court.

A jury last month convicted Halstead of aiding and abetting first-degree sexual assault.

Judge Jason Cuomo called the crimes unspeakable. He issued the maximum allowable sentence Tuesday and told Halstead that if he had the authority to impose the death penalty, "you'd have it today."

Prosecutors say the victim was stacking tires with two other friends for the Halsteads when he was assaulted.

Karl Halstead maintained his innocence after leaving the courtroom.

Halstead's son, Kevin Halstead of Newell, was sentenced last year to up to 20 years in prison.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - A former Huntington accountant has been charged with embezzling more than $1 million.

Media outlets report that 57-year-old Kimberly Dawn Price was charged with more than 950 counts including embezzlement, forgery and uttering.

Criminal complaints filed by State Police in Cabell County Magistrate Court say Price is accused of stealing from at least one client's account from 2010 through last September while she was employed at an accounting firm.

According to the complaints, troopers said a relative of a client who died last October noticed the account was low and contacted the firm. Troopers said the funds allegedly were used by the suspect to pay off vehicles and for trips, among other things.

Price was arraigned on the charges Friday. It wasn't immediately known whether she had an attorney.

Owners of a longtime Italian restaurant in Charleston filed a lawsuit last week claiming its insurance company won't provide reimbursement for the loss it allegedly suffered during the water crisis.

Attorneys for Joe Fazio's Restaurant Inc. filed a lawsuit in Kanawha Circuit Court against Motorist Mutual Insurance Company. Fazio's claims it paid its premium so it would be paid for the amount of money it lost while restaurants were ordered closed for about five days after the January 2014 chemical spill.

Among other expenses Fazio's wants compensated for are those associated with the loss of food and Coca-Cola products. Motorist has failed to honor the restaurant's claim, the lawsuit states.

A judge ordered a Kanawha County public defender to pay $50 for giving a client a copy of a packet that contained the identity of a confidential informant.

Photos of the packet ended up on social media.

Sarah Whitaker, the public defender; her counsel, Timothy Mayo; and assistant prosecutor Tera Salango, agreed on the terms of the order, which directs Whitaker to pay $50.

Judge Tod Kaufman accepted the order at a hearing Tuesday afternoon, after asking Whitaker why she gave a copy of the packet to her client.

"Your honor, I simply forgot," Whitaker said.

The order also says that the parties have agreed to no longer photocopy confidential informant packets.

On. Dec. 2, Whitaker gave her client, Tracie Jones, a copy of a packet containing the name of the informant Jones allegedly sold drugs to. Whitaker said she had spent a couple hours reviewing the case with Jones, so forgot to ask for the packet back.

After Jones received the packet, a man she used to live with, Andre Lee, posted several photos of the packet on Facebook.

Whitaker had signed an order on Oct. 23 prohibiting the copying and distributing of packets containing confidential informants' identities. The Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney's Office requests all defense lawyers to sign similar agreements.

Lee posted numerous photos of the packet on Dec. 10 with captions like "I'd be ashamed of myself," "exposed" and "cheap whore." The photos show the name of the informant, his address, and some of the rules for informants and potential cash rewards, ranging from $60 to $200.

The packet also lists Lee and Jones as "targets." Marijuana is written next to Lee's name, while prescription pills is written next to Jones.

Whitaker became aware she had let Jones leave with the packet on Dec. 14 and subsequently notified the court. On Dec. 15, Kaufman removed her from the case during a hearing in his courtroom.

Jones, 45, of Charleston, was charged with possession with intent to distribute oxycodone on July 9. She allegedly sold to a confidential informant working with the Metro Drug Unit on April 20, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha Circuit Court.

The hearing Tuesday was supposed to start at 11 a.m. The parties involved met behind closed doors instead, and the judge postponed the hearing until 1:30 p.m.

Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. (AP) - Police say a West Virginia Wesleyan College student has been charged with attacking another student with a hammer near campus in Buckhannon last month.

Buckhannon Police Chief Matt Gregory tells WBOY-TV that Jackson Dalton Tyler is charged with malicious assault. It isn't clear whether Tyler, a 21-year-old Cross Lanes resident, has an attorney.

Officials say Robert Brunswick was injured during the Dec. 5 attack and had to undergo medical treatment.

The Inter-Mountain reports six others ranging in age from 19 to 23 were charged with felony aiding and abetting malicious assault. They were released on bond.

School spokeswoman Rochelle Long says Wesleyan is conducting its own investigation into the incident.

SISTERSVILLE, W.Va. (AP) - Authorities say a Sistersville police officer is recovering after accidentally shooting himself following a high-speed pursuit.

Local media outlets report that Sgt. Alex Northcraft was apprehending a suspect after a pursuit Monday night, when the officer tried to place his firearm back into his holster and the gun went off, striking himself in the upper leg.

The chase started after officers were notified about a car being stolen from a Sistersville convenience store.

Sistersville Police Chief Rob Haught says Northcraft was attempting to apprehend the suspect, but the individual failed to comply.

It is unclear what charges the suspect is facing.

Approved bondsmen will be allowed to continue offering their services in Kanawha County, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey declined to grant a stay to the Kanawha Public Defender's Office while they wait for a judge to rule on the legality of an October order from then-Chief Judge James Stucky to allow bondsmen to work in Kanawha County.

Bailey said the request for a stay did not seem to be an emergency order, since it was filed in December, months after Stucky's order.

"Today I am not going to grant a stay because the position of the petitioner is that there's no harm," Bailey said.

Currently, there are three bail bonds companies allowed to operate in Kanawha County.

Stucky originally approved four bail bonds companies in late December, but one of those bondsmen, Richard Patrick, had his approval to sell bail bonds revoked Tuesday, when his agents started selling bail bonds in Kanawha County. According to the ruling, Patrick had permission to sell, but his agents didn't.

Bailey referenced that recent decision during the hearing, saying that the order was working if someone already had their license revoked for not following the law.

The petition filed by the Public Defender's Office argues that the administrative order allowing bondsmen was never submitted to the Supreme Court, as state Trial Court Rules require.

Bailey called into question whether or not the order had to be sent to the Supreme Court, depending on how the order was classified.

The bail bondsmen who were in attendance were pleased with the result and optimistic that the judge will rule in their favor when it comes to the legality of Stucky's order.

"I think they'll say that the Public Defenders Office has no right to even file this complaint," said Lora Stevens from 1A Bailbonds Inc.

The bondsmen were surprised that the Public Defender's Office was bringing this complaint, because in most counties, the bondsmen work closely with the Public Defender's Office.

"The public defender is usually our friend," said Amy Hass, from Amy Hass Bail Bonds. Hass was the first person to offer a bail bond in Kanawha County in almost 20 years.

Bailey gave the Public Defender's Office 10 days to provide her with evidence that Stucky's order was afoul of Trial Court Rules and what standing the Public Defender's Office has to raise the case on behalf of itself.

Reach Daniel Desrochers at 304-348-4886, dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) - The Huntington Police Department reports that crime was down but arrests were up in the city last year.

Preliminary statistics released Wednesday show that total reported offenses were down nearly 5 percent. However, arrests increased more than 6 percent.

Drug offenses and DUI arrests both increased by about one-fourth. Prostitution arrests were up 83 percent.

Serious crimes as defined by the FBI decreased by nearly 5 percent. These crimes include murder, rape, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft.

Officers answered nearly 45,000 calls for service, an increase of nearly 3 percent.

A Malden man is charged with first-degree sexual assault with a minor after he allegedly assaulted a 5-year-old girl.

Douglas Richard Eddy, 41, was arrested Wednesday following an investigation that started last month, according to a release from the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office.

The girl, the daughter of Eddy's former coworker, described the incident to her mother and then again to an expert at Charleston Area Medical Center's Women and Children's Hospital Child Advocacy Center, according to the sheriff's office.

Anyone with information on this or similar crimes is asked to called the sheriff's office at 304-357-0169.

Natalie Casdorph held back tears Thursday as she spoke to the man who admitted to killing her son inside a room at the Motel 6 in Cross Lanes.

Marcus Dominick Curtis, 26, of Dunbar, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder in the January 2015 killing of Kalvon Casdorph. Curtis told Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King that he and two other people, Terrick Hogan and Shayla Stephenson, of St. Albans, each got about $1,100 out of what they stole from Casdorph.

King said he would hold off on sentencing Curtis until the conclusion of the cases against Hogan and Stephenson.

In a deal with prosecutors, Casdorph agreed to testify against them in exchange for a sentence that included mercy, which gives him the chance to go before a parole board after serving 15 years in prison.

"I appreciate his remorse," Natalie Casdorph said, holding back tears. "We just want justice. My family has been broken, their family has been broken."

In April, Curtis wrote a letter to Casdorph's mother apologizing for what he had done, said assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers. The two families had known each other for years and Curtis told the judge Thursday that Casdorph had been his friend.

"So you killed your friend over some money, is that about it?" King asked.

"You could say that, I guess," Curtis responded.

Natalie Casdorph agreed to the plea deal in hopes of Curtis one day turning his life around.

"I hope you will do something for the youth, the community," she said.

Her son had been at the Mardi Gras Casino and Resort the night of Jan. 10, 2015. He had recently gotten an insurance settlement from a car wreck that nearly killed him, his mother said after the hearing Thursday.

Natalie Casdorph said her son had taken Hogan with him to the casino to have fun. He was always doing something to help out his friends Hogan and Stephenson, who were a couple with a new baby, she said.

"They could have just asked for some money and he would have given it to them," Natalie Casdorph said outside the courtroom. "He had given them money before."

Stephenson, 22, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery. Hogan's trial is scheduled to begin Monday. He's also charged with first-degree murder. Stephenson has also agreed to testify against him.

Curtis said Thursday that Stephenson picked him up on Charleston's West Side and then went by Hogan's grandmother's house and got a gun. The two then drove to Cross Lanes. Hogan was sending Curtis text messages on the way there, encouraging the robbery, according to Curtis.

Curtis said as he walked into the room at the motel where Casdorph was staying, Hogan walked out. Casdorph was in the bathroom. Stephenson had helped Curtis tie a scarf around his face, he said.

"When he came out, my face was covered up so he was scared and stuff. He just kept looking back and forth at the bed, he dived to the bed, which I thought under the pillow was a gun. That's why I shot him," Curtis said Thursday. "Then he dove at me and we tussled for a minute and I shot him again."

Curtis got money from Casdorph's pants and met Stephenson and Hogan at the edge of the motel's parking lot.

Kanawha sheriff's deputies arrested the three near the Patrick Street bridge after a pursuit. Stephenson crashed into a telephone pole trying to make a turn, police said at the time.

Before being led out of the courtroom, the judge asked Curtis if there was anything he'd like to say to Casdorph's mother.

"I apologize for everything I've done. I wish I could take it back," Curtis said, looking up at her.

"Thank you," she whispered.

Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.

A Kanawha circuit judge on Thursday refused to lower the bond of a former CVS pharmacy manager charged with robbery.

Kellie Cook, 41, of Dunbar, who was a manager at the pharmacy on Oakwood Road in Charleston, was arrested and charged last month with two counts of second-degree robbery.

Cook allegedly told Charles "Eddie" Jacobs about the number of prescription pills in the store and the dates the pills were delivered to the pharmacy. Jacobs is accused of robbing four CVS pharmacies in the area.

To get out of jail, Cook has to post 10 percent of the $100,000 bond set by a magistrate. Circuit Judge Charles King refused to lower it on Thursday.

Cook's attorney, Richard Holicker, a deputy Kanawha public defender, told the judge his client could post only about $100.

Jacobs, 31, is accused of robbing the CVS stores, including the Oakwood store twice, as well as the store on Charleston's East End, in Dunbar and in Teays Valley. Police spent months looking for a suspect. In each robbery, a masked man entered the store and demanded pills at gunpoint.

The pair was caught after CVS employees put GPS monitoring systems in prescription pain pill bottles.

Assistant Kanawha prosecutor Maryclaire Akers objected to lowering Cook's bond. She told the judge that Cook and Jacobs met in an Internet chat room and discussed robbing the store.

A federal judge on Thursday sentenced the former mayor of Pratt to spend three years on probation for selling prescription pills.

Gary Allen Fields, 68, previously pleaded guilty in Charleston to distribution of oxycodone. He admitted to selling six 15-milligram oxycodone pills to a police informant on April 23, 2015.

U.S. District Judge Johnston went along with a plea agreement Fields had made with prosecutors. Fields agreed last year to plead guilty in exchange for the three years on probation. The maximum sentence the charge carries is 20 years.

Johnston didn't force Fields to pay any fine.

A confidential informant for the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office went to Fields' home in Pratt, where six pills were purchased.

Fields was indicted on June 3, about a week before he lost his re-election bid. He had said that he would step down as mayor, win or lose, but received only three votes compared to then-councilman Eric Holcomb's 78.

In August 2013, Fields was arrested and charged with simple possession in Kanawha Magistrate Court after pills were allegedly found in the city-owned vehicle he was driving during a traffic stop. In November 2014, Fields was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of a controlled substance after police pulled him over in Chesapeake.

Until last year, Fields had resisted calls for his resignation. In 2014, a three-judge panel appointed by the state Supreme Court decided not to remove him from office after townspeople filed a petition asking that he be thrown out.

Reach Kate White at

kate.white@wvgazettemail.com,

304-348-1723 or follow

@KateLWhite on Twitter.

A former Capital High School student who faces a sexual assault charge from 2015 pleaded guilty to domestic battery in a separate case Thursday.

Dallas King, 18, will spend one year on probation and participate in a batterers' prevention program, according to a plea deal approved by Kanawha Magistrate Julie Yeager.

Yeager agreed to drop one count of battery King was facing. He has been ordered not to have any contact with the victim, according to the deal, signed by prosecutors, King and his attorney, former Kanawha prosecutor Dan Holstein.

King pushed the mother of his child into a wall at his Greendale Drive home in October, causing a knot to form on the left side of her forehead, according to police. The girl told police at the time that King became extremely angry and shoved her during an argument. He was on home confinement at the time.

In a juvenile case in Kanawha Circuit Court, King is charged with sexual assault after an alleged incident involving a 15-year-old girl at Capital High in January 2015. King is accused of forcing the girl to have sex with him under a stairwell at the school.

King's name became public after he agreed to transfer the case to adult status and plead guilty to the lesser offense of sexual abuse. However, Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey allowed him to take back his plea after he argued that his attorney at the time didn't tell him he'd have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. That deal would have exposed him to one to five years in jail.

The case has been transferred back to juvenile status and King now faces between 10 and 25 years in jail. A hearing is set for next month, but juvenile cases are closed to the public.

An off-duty Charleston police officer arrested a suspected car thief Thursday afternoon in an impromptu stop.

At about 1:15 p.m., Charleston Sgt. Anthony Colagrasso witnessed a man jump into a Jeep Grand Cherokee that had been left unlocked with the engine running as the owner went inside the Go-Mart on 3rd Street in St. Albans.

According to a press release from St. Albans police, Colagrasso then followed the suspected car thief and saw the driver of the Jeep crash once and flee the scene of the crash in the Jeep.

When Colagrasso finally pulled the Jeep over near the West Virginia State University campus in Institute, the officer identified the suspect as Christopher Rader, 31, of Dunbar. Rader was then arrested on multiple charges, including grand larceny, violating he parole, driving with a suspended license, driving under the influence and failing to register as a sex offender.

According to the press release, Rader was later identified as the suspect in a separate incident in which he allegedly assaulted a KRT bus driver, who kicked Rader off a bus after he urinated while on board.

According to police, Rader has yet to be charged for that incident.

Republicans will continue to control the West Virginia Senate, after the state Supreme Court ended nearly three weeks of uncertainty, ruling that a Republican should fill the Senate seat vacated by Democrat-turned-Republican Daniel Hall.

The court, in an opinion issued Friday, ruled that state code is clear - a legislator who switched parties after being elected should be replaced by someone from the same party as the resigning legislator was when he quit.

Hall was elected as a Democrat in 2012, but switched parties in 2014 and resigned as a Republican to become a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.

The court ruled 3-1 in favor of the Republicans, with Justice Margaret Workman writing the majority opinion. Justice Robin Davis dissented, but has not yet filed a dissenting opinion. Chief Justice Menis Ketchum and Justice Allen Loughry each wrote separate concurring opinions.

Ketchum's concurring opinion, just one paragraph long, recognizes the political nature of the case and gives a harsh view of his own Democratic Party.

"I realize that my vote in this case effectively eliminates any chance of my being reelected to our Supreme Court," wrote Ketchum, who is not up for re-election until 2020. "Nevertheless, I took an oath to impartially apply our laws and I promised to set political favoritism aside. The statute in this case is clear."

The court's decision means the Senate will revert to the 18-16 Republican majority that they gained when Hall switched parties the day after the 2014 elections.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat, on Friday appointed Naomi "Sue" Cline, a Republican, to the vacant seat.

Cline, of Brenton, ran unsuccessfully for House of Delegates in 2014. She will be the second woman currently in the state Senate, to go with 32 men.

Tomblin had said all along that he would abide by the court's decision. Republican Senate leaders had not said whether they would agree to recognize a Democrat in Hall's seat - a question that became moot with the court's decision.

Since Hall's Jan. 4 resignation, the Senate has been controlled by Republicans, with a slim 17-16 majority, with the unresolved issue looming large over the early days of the legislative session.

The state Democratic Party had filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court, arguing that Hall's replacement should reflect the will of the voters, who elected a Democrat.

Loughry, in his concurring opinion, called the lawsuit "a thinly veiled attempt to bait the members of this court into a partisan resolution.

"Neither this court nor any court is constituted for the purpose of being played as a political trump card," Loughry wrote.

State law says that Tomblin should appoint a replacement from a list "submitted by the party and with which the person holding the office immediately preceding the vacancy was affiliated."

Republicans read that "immediately preceding" as referring to Hall's party. He was a Republican immediately preceding his resignation, so the replacement should be a Republican, they said during oral arguments at the state Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Democrats said the "immediately preceding" refers to Hall himself, not his party. They said the code is ambiguous, and thus the replacement should respect the will of the voters, who elected a Democrat.

Workman wrote that the Democrats' interpretation of the statue was "profoundly strained and constitutes a misreading of statutory language that is clear in its meaning.

"It is undisputed that Senator Hall was affiliated with the Republican Party immediately preceding the vacancy and had been so affiliated since November 2014. The legislature's use of the phrase 'immediately preceding the vacancy' is manifestly plain," Workman wrote. "Dissatisfied with the text of the statute, the petitioners sought to identify and apply an overarching legislative goal that purports to promote the will of the voters. However, an analysis which fails to provide reasonable meaning to the phrase 'immediately preceding the vacancy' is wholly improper."

Workman wrote that the Democrats' attempts to point to court decisions in other states were also improper, as the laws were not comparable.

In oral arguments, Davis had made the case that while state code may be clear - favoring the Republicans - it may also be unconstitutional, as it would disenfranchise the Democrats who voted for Hall, when he was a Democrat.

But the court disagreed.

Workman wrote that the specific section of state code has "minimal" effects on the rights of citizens to elect their representatives.

"The effect does not fall disproportionately on a discreet group of voters or political parties and affects both political parties equally, depending in each instance upon the party affiliation of the person creating a vacancy," she wrote. "Equal treatment of voters, based upon an unforeseeable event such as the changing of political parties and a subsequent vacancy, does not constitute a violation of equal protection."

During oral arguments, Davis also repeatedly chastised the Democrats for not focusing more on the constitutional argument.

The court, in its opinion, hinted that could have made a difference.

The relevant U.S. Supreme Court case "was not significantly addressed" in the Democrats' brief, nor was a constitutional argument "advanced in a thorough manner," Workman wrote, in a footnote.

Justice Brent Benjamin, who is up for re-election this year, recused himself from the case before it began, and Ketchum did not appoint a replacement for him. Workman, Davis and Ketchum are Democrats; Loughry and Benjamin are Republicans.

The West Virginia Democratic Party sued over Hall's vacancy on Jan. 8, and officials from both political parties in Hall's 9th Senatorial District each submitted a list of three names to replace him on Jan. 12. By law, the governor had five days to appoint a replacement after he received those names, but the Supreme Court ordered him to wait until they had ruled in the case.

The 9th District includes Raleigh and Wyoming counties and a small part of northern McDowell County.

Reach David Gutman at david.gutman@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5119 or follow @davidlgutman on Twitter.

The West Virginia Supreme Court announced Thursday that it has refused ousted state schools superintendent Jorea Marple's request for a rehearing of her lawsuit against the state Board of Education.

Like its Nov. 10 decision dismissing her case, which was filed in April 2014, the court's choice this week to not revisit its decision was unanimous. In a petition filed with the high court last month, Marple's lawyers took issue with the justices' finding that the two defendants in her lawsuit - the state school board as a whole and former board President Wade Linger specifically - had "qualified immunity" from the suit.

As usual in petitions for rehearing, the Supreme Court's order denying Marple's petition came without explanation from the justices, court spokeswoman Jennifer Bundy said.

The state school board's lawyers opposed the request for rehearing, basically arguing that the court had already addressed all issues raised in the petition, so its order - which stopped the case from going to trial - should stand as is. The attorneys said Marple's petition "regurgitated" arguments not suitable for a rehearing, which is meant for the court to address points it overlooked or misapprehended.

Marple's petition took issue with the Supreme Court's finding that Marple's complaint - the common substantive initial filing in a lawsuit - didn't "contain any allegation that the Board or Mr. Linger acted fraudulently, maliciously, or oppressively."

Considering that the state Constitution says the state schools superintendent serves at the "will and pleasure" of the state school board, Marple's attorneys tried to argue that her firing by the board was illegal regardless.

While specifically stating in their opinion that "we do not pass judgment on the wisdom, correctness, or fairness of Dr. Marple's termination," the justices - Circuit Judge Christopher Wilkes was assigned to the case after Chief Justice Margaret Workman disqualified herself - ruled that the firing was at the board's discretion.

The court said the state and its officials or employees are immune from liability for such discretionary actions unless "plaintiff has demonstrated that such acts or omissions are in violation of clearly established statutory or constitutional rights or laws of which a reasonable person would have known or are otherwise fraudulent, malicious, or oppressive." The court found Marple had not established that.

Marple's request for rehearing tried to counter this through listing several phrases that were in her complaint. One accused Linger, who's still a board member but no longer president, of leading a "covert agenda" to fire her. Another said Linger made "completely false" allegations about why the board was firing Marple.

"Consideration should be accorded as to how these allegations could not be construed to be either or all 'fraudulent, malicious or oppressive' so as to engage the application of substantive law," the petition for rehearing stated.